The Solidarity Peace Delegation, concluding their July 23-28 visit to South Korea, calls for immediate US-South Korean action to de-escalate growing military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The delegation was composed of Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, Reece Chenault of US Labor Against the War, Will Griffin of Veterans for Peace, and recent Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

Jerry Hendrix and Robert O'Brien welcome Trump's signing of an executive order to review and revitalize America’s industrial base. They argue, "Like the Roosevelts, Eisenhower and Reagan before him, President Trump has inherited a world in crisis. A resurgent and aggressive Russia, a rising and assertive China, an Iran intent on establishing a Middle East hegemony and a nuclear-crazed rogue-state North Korea all are undermining the free market and rules-based international order that America has encouraged and protected for decades. In light of these challenges, a vibrant United States DIB is an imperative today just as it has been in past eras." [More] Also see: Pentagon: US Empire 'Collapsing,' So Give Us More Money; and The Other Side of War: Fury and Repression in St. Louis

Angus MacSwan reports that thousands of children have been separated from their parents in the nine-month battle for Mosul and the preceding years of Islamic State rule in northern Iraq - some found wandering alone and afraid among the rubble, others joining the refugee exodus from the pulverized city. In some cases their parents have been killed. Families have been split up as they fled street fighting, air strikes or Islamic State repression. Many are traumatized from the horrors they have endured. Protecting the youngsters and reuniting them with their families is an urgent task for humanitarian organizations. UNICEF says children in shock had been found in debris or hidden in tunnels in Mosul. Some had lost their families while fleeing to safety but sometimes parents had been forced to abandon children or give them away. Many children were forced to fight or carry out violent acts, it said in a statement. They were also vulnerable to sexual exploitation. [More] Also see:Is This What “Liberation” Looks Like? U.S. Airstrikes Have Devastated Mosul; and The World's Largest Humanitarian Crisis Is Basically Being Blacked Out by Western Media; andSaudi war on Yemen only possible with US support

John Feffer compares Donald Trump to the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Like Gorbachev, Trump helms a fading empire. But while the former Soviet leader supported democratization in his wake, Trump's sowing the seeds of autocracy all over the globe. Donald Trump, the head of another putative superpower desperately in need of internal reform, has promised his own form of perestroika in the form of his attacks on the “administrative state.” He offers his own form of glasnost with his obsessive tweeting. Trumpeting a xenophobic foreign policy, he’s also vowed to thoroughly transform the bloc that he nominally leads. And when Trump goes abroad, he has his own transformative effect. But while Gorbachev promoted democratization in his wake, Trump promotes exactly the opposite. [More] Also see: Russia sanctions fuel new Cold War

President Obama slapped Russia with new penalties for meddling in the U.S. presidential election, kicking out dozens of suspected spies and imposing banking restrictions on five people and four organizations the administration says were involved. The CIA has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election by hacking into Democratic and Republican computer networks and selectively releasing emails. But critics might point out the U.S. has done similar things. The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it’s done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000 , according to a database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University. That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor does it include general assistance with the electoral process, such as election monitoring. [More] Also see: US Meddling in 1996 Russian Elections in Support of Boris Yeltsin; and Partisan electoral interventions by the great powers: Introducing the PEIG Dataset

Writing for Common Dreams, Jake Johnson informs us that as the 16th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan approaches, President Donald Trump is reportedly being pressured by a billionaire financier and a chemical executive to extend the scope of the conflict for one simple, greedy reason: to exploit Afghanistan's mineral reserves. According to James Risen and Mark Landler of the New York Times, "In 2010, American officials estimated that Afghanistan had untapped mineral deposits worth nearly $1 trillion." This large figure reportedly "caught the attention of" the president, who has in the past argued that the biggest failure of the U.S. in Iraq was not "taking" the country's oil. Common Dreams earlier this month, the Trump White House has been consulting with high-profile war profiteers who have argued that the way forward in Afghanistan is to further privatize military operations in the country. [More] Also see: How CIA and Allies Trapped Obama in the Syrian Arms Debacle

Late last week, the Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump will end covert support of militias attempting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Ann Garrison, writing for Black Agenda Report, spoke to Rick Sterling, investigative journalist for Consortium News and member of the Syria Solidarity Movement, about the report. Responding to her questions, Sterling observed, "The anti-Russia McCarthyism is so extreme that Trump seems almost afraid to announce the termination of the CIA program. Neoconservatives are framing the decision as a concession or even “appeasement” of Putin because they want to continue the conflict. They want to stop Trump from de-escalating tension with Russia and withdrawing from Syria. . . . Whether it’s Obama or Trump or John McCain, one should evaluate policies and actions and criticize or support them on their specific merits and faults. If Trump is really trying to de-escalate the Syrian conflict, that is a good policy. One can support that and remain critical of his policies and actions in other areas." [More] Also see: Trump is Setting Up a 'Dangerous Confrontation' With Iran; and US Expanding Militarization & Corporate Looting In Central America

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